What can you do about an opponent who hits passing shots over and over? (Part 3)
Alright, next step we've got a question from Bruce. Bruce wrote to me and said, ‘I watched the YouTube video today that demonstrated these footstep. My question concerns the timing of this footstep. Should I make the jump when my opponent contacts the ball? When he– usually he–begins a backs swing or some other time? Cheers. Bruce.' Bruce good question. And this footstep is a very, very important topic and something that most amateur players don't do at all. And very often the ones that do, do it, don't do a great a job of it and do it at the wrong time and it's really all about the timing. If you're not split stepping already. I'm speaking to everybody here. If you're not already split stepping, you need to begin that as soon as possible. You need to start putting that into your game, because it's going to help you being balance. It's going to help be more agile. It's going to help anticipate more shots, because it just gets your body moving and gets it in a good balance athletic position and gets your body prepared to actually move. And its so important.
And if you're already doing it. Hopefully my explanation today of how the time is exactly helps you do a decent more efficiently. And so that's an excellent question Bruce. And the timing is incredibly crucial to actually having this be a benefit to your game.
Now the pros split step and land just after they make contact by their opponent. Now they begin the process of split stepping just before contact. You'll see them kind of get going on their tip toes, maybe get a couple of steps, and then they actually make the actual split step which is a splitting apart of the feet, and the feet usually leave the ground for a short period of time, and then they land in a wide athletic stance with their knees bent and facing forwards. That's this footstep. And usually they begin this process of doing that right before their opponent makes contact, meaning when the ball actually touches the racket. A nd then the professionals typically land on the balls of their feet just after contact has been made.
I used to think that this was timed exactly with contacts and the balls of their feet were landing just this contact was made, but I learned otherwise based on good video that Will a Fuzzy Yellow Balls created. And he showed several examples of professionals and slow motion timing their split step. And the pros will land just a little bit. When I say a little bit I'm talking a split second after contact. Now when an amateur playing tries this footstep and screws it up, it's usually, because they're too late. And it's not that they're after contact. They'll actually make this split step after the swing is done and the ball is already off the racket, and that's when they'll actually make the entire split step. And that's much too late. And so typically I teach and I instruct my students to time their split step with contact. And so I ask them to land on the balls of their feet as contact is being made.
And in reality it's usually a later than this for most players. Most players struggle definitely at first if not just in general and timing this correctly. And I encourage you guys just to start working on this as soon as possible, because it takes most players–especially if you're picking tennis a little bit later in life. It takes most players quite a bit of time to be comfortable with this, and to actually time it correctly and make it a habit.
Ultimately that's our goal is to do this automatically without even thinking about it. You don't want to have to think about how the time or split step during a match, because that's just going to completely get in the way if you actually playing tennis. So that's very important. So I really encourage you guys to start practicing this on the practice court as soon as possible. And the timing of this is so important. So again usually amateur players are late when they do mess this up. It's very rare that in my experience that an amateur player does the split step and it's way too early. And they're just kind of sitting there on the balls of their feet waiting for contact to occur. Usually players try to do too much with their feet, and this often happens in the serving volley where a player will hit the serve and start rushing forwards and trying to get too close before they make their split step. The ball gets hit then they split step after the ball is hit and by the time their feet are touching the ground on the balls of their feet. The ball is already there. And that defeats the whole purpose of making this split step.
So this is why I instruct players to make their split step a little earlier than the pros actually do it, because I want to make sure that they do it on time. And my reasoning for this is that if you do it early–and let's say for example that my student does exactly as I instruct them and they do it a little bit earlier than the pros do. And maybe they hit their split step even a little bit before contact. Well, you may not be positioned optimally. You wasted a little bit of time that you could have used to move your feet and maybe get your body to a little bit better spot on the court. But at least your body is in balance and you're ready to move. In a split step after you finish with it. You're in a perfect ready position. And you're ready to move in any direction on the court. This is as opposed to being late and your position maybe better on the court, because you use more of your time to move your feet towards some place on the court. either it would be recovering back to the center of the base line, or moving forward towards the net after a return or a serve in doubles. Maybe your body's in a little bit better place on the court. B ut once the ball gets to you, you going to be much more rushed and you're going to be off balance and not ready to move for the ball–or maybe away from the ball if it's coming right at you–because you used up so much of your time to move your feet and you didn't get your self balanced. The perfect example of this is the serving volley. After you serve and volley you want to get close to the net. The closer the better. Because it's going to make your volleys or have foul is easier in general. However, if you don't split step until after–well after–your opponent hits their shot. Again, by that time your feet touch on the ground the balls already there and you have very little time to react to the ball once you actually balance your body and you're ready to hit the ball. I would rather that you be a couple steps farther away from the net by the time you make your first split step and be balance and ready for the ball and calm and relax and waiting for the oncoming ball so that you can start moving again, whether it be to the right or the left or forwards or backward or whatever. I'd much rather that you're little farther away and be in balance and ready for the ball then closer to the net and rushed. And not ready for the shot. And so that's my reasoning there. I've much rather you be a little bit earlier than a little bit late. So Bruce hopefully that answers your questions fully and again I recommend that you make your split step so that your feet actually land on the court as your opponent is making contact. By the way, you might notice first I haven't said anything about your opponent's b ack swing or when the ball bounces on your opponent side or even what type of shot their hitting. It doesn't make any difference. You want to time this with when they make contact. And so it's going be a little different every time. You want to watch the ball travel to their side of the court and then identify what type of shot they're hitting, hat position they're in, so that you can see when they're going to make contact and you want to begin your split step right before they start to actually swing forward towards the ball. And I really shouldn't even say that, because it really depends what type of shot they're hitting. If they're hitting a volley and there's not much of a swing there, and so you have to time this on the fly with how your opponent and the ball are intersecting, and where they are in the court, and when the balls actually getting to the racket. So this is tricky. It's not an easy thing. Its not simple. Just like a lot of things in tennis, but it's going to take you sometime. So Bruce thanks for your great question and hopefully that answers it. Let me know if you have anything farther. Good luck in implementing the split step into your game. Is such an important part of playing good tennis.
Alright, that does it for the Essential Tennis Podcast episode #101. Thank you very much for joining me today. And in today's shout out I would like to thank Brian and Dana and Renata in Fremont, Nebraska. And they've been instrumental and helping me get set up the upcoming Essential Tennis clinic in Nebraska. So I want to thank them for their efforts in helping find courts to play on and local hotels, and all kinds of stuff like that. And the three of them have been big supporters of the website. So I want to give a shout out to you guys and say thank you for everything that you've done for the podcast and for the website. And I look forward to working with all three of you guys on the tennis court in March coming up pretty quickly.
And again send me an e-mail if you're interested in attending that clinic. I would love to have you and I'd love to help you improve your game. Just like I have many other people at the first two Essential Tennis Clinics.
Alright, that does it for this week. Have fun watching the Australian open everybody. I've got it playing just to the right of me right now as in recording, and lots of great tennis already. Make sure that you catch a lot of that action. Its so much fun to watch the pros play.
Alright, take care everybody and good luck with your tennis.
